Years Ago

Today is Thursday, Sept. 19, the 262nd day of 2013. There are 103 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1777: The first Battle of Saratoga is fought during the Revolutionary War; although the British forces succeed in driving out the American troops, the Americans prevail in a second battle the following month.

1796: President George Washington’s farewell address is published.

1881: The 20th president of the United States, James A. Garfield, dies 21/2 months after being shot by Charles Guiteau; Chester Alan Arthur becomes president.

1982: The smiley emoticon is invented as Carnegie Mellon University professor Scott E. Fahlman proposes punctuating humorously intended computer messages by employing a colon followed by a hyphen and a parenthesis as a horizontal “smiley face.” :-)

VINDICATOR FILES

1988: In an incident said to be muscle-flexing by a local drug gang, three Warren police officers are fired upon but not hit as they sat in two cruisers in the Highland Terrace housing project.

1973: Mayor Jack C. Hunter signs and sends to Columbus an application for $335,000 in Title VII funds to establish a nutrition program for low-income elderly in Mahoning County.

Trumbull County voters defeat a proposed joint vocational school for the fifth time, by a vote of 7,477 to 6,831.

1963: Assistant city engineer J. Phillip Richley acknowledges that there have been many complaints about the city’s $1.2 million sidewalk program, but that few have been found to be justified.

Youngstown Planning Director Donald Wagner tells City Council that a new study will be undertaken to resolve disputes over a proposed redesign of Youngstown’s Central Square loop.

Six youths are reported beaten in three separate after-school brawls, Youngstown police say. Two of the boys required hospitalization.

1938: Police and hospital authorities are attempting to identify a young woman found unconscious in the W. Federal bus terminal, who has remained unconscious for more than 36 hours at St. Elizabeth Hospital.

A number of Youngstown College classes will meet in Butler Art Institute because of overcrowding of the college building as a result of unusually heavy enrollment in both day and night classes.

After pleading guilty in Mercer County court, Mrs. Frances Hoffman Day is given a life sentence and William Redfoot 10 to 20 years in Western Penitentiary for their part in the ax murder of Howard Sidley, a Grove City service station owner in March 1935.